Prevent Don't Promote Marijuana/THC Use

As the share of the population who uses marijuana increases, the number of users who become addicted to the product rises proportionately. Except in the 20th Century, we have much more potent marijuana and THC-laced products. So the new numbers on addiction rates are yet to be collected or fully analyzed.

By THE WASHINGTON POST
PUBLISHED: August 14, 2016 at 10:04 pm | UPDATED: October 2, 2016 at 5:05 pm

A massive study published this month in the Journal of Drug Issues found that the proportion of marijuana users who smoke daily has rapidly grown, and that many of those frequent users are poor and lack a high-school diploma.
Examining a decade of federal surveys of drug use conducted between 2002 and 2013, study authors Steven Davenport and Jonathan Caulkins paint one of the clearest pictures yet of the demographics of current marijuana use in the U.S. They found that the profile of marijuana users is much closer to cigarette smokers than alcohol drinkers, and that a handful of users consume much of the marijuana used in the U.S.
“In the early 1990s only one in nine past-month [marijuana] users reported using daily or near-daily,” Davenport and Caulkins write. “Now it is fully one in three. Daily or near-daily users now account for over two-thirds of self-reported days of use (68%).”
These usage patterns are similar to what’s seen among tobacco users. “What’s going on here is that over the last 20 years marijuana went from being used like alcohol to being used more like tobacco, in the sense of lots of people using it every day,” Caulkins said in an email.
Adults with less than a high school education accounted for 19 percent of all marijuana use in 2012 and 2013 (compared to 13 percent of the total adult population), according to the survey. This is similar to their 20 percent share of all cigarette use, but considerably higher than their 8 percent share of all alcohol use.
Similarly, Americans of all ages with a household income of less than $20,000 accounted for 29 percent of all marijuana use and 27 percent of all cigarette use, compared to only 13 percent of all alcohol use and 19 percent of the total adult population.
The concentration of use among poorer households means that many marijuana users are spending a high proportion of their income on their marijuana habit. Users who spend fully one quarter of their income on weed account for 15 percent of all marijuana use.
One interesting finding is that over the past 10 years as many states have liberalized their marijuana policies, marijuana arrests are down while marijuana purchases are up. This means that the risk of getting arrested for marijuana use has fallen sharply since 2002. That year, there was one marijuana arrest for every 550 marijuana purchases, according to Davenport and Caulkins. By 2013, there was one marijuana arrest for every 1,090 purchases.
“The criminal risk per marijuana transaction has fallen by half,” they conclude. Much of that risk is still born by non-white marijuana users.
Davenport and Caulkins stress that since the study was conducted over a period preceding the opening of recreational marijuana markets in Colorado and Washington, it doesn’t offer any evidence on the merits or lack thereof of legalization.
“Our results can in no way be interpreted as evidence toward the successes or failures of marijuana legalization or even medical marijuana laws,” they write.
However, they say their research presents a number of things to consider as states like California, Arizona and Maine vote on marijuana legalization this fall.
“Most people who have used marijuana in the past year are in full control of their use, and are generally happy with that use,” Caulkins said in an email. But, “consumption is highly concentrated among the smaller number of daily & near-daily users, and they tend to be less educated, less affluent, and less in control of their use.”
The median marijuana user, in other words, may be someone who indulges periodically but generally doesn’t consume a lot of it. However, most of the marijuana consumed in the U.S. isn’t consumed by the median marijuana user, but rather by the very heavy users who smoke daily or more.
“There is a sharp contrast between what policy is best for the typical user versus what is best for the people who consume most of the marijuana,” Caulkins said. Legalization may not change much in the life of the typical marijuana user. But heavy users who overindulge may find it even easier to do so when marijuana is legal and cheaper to buy.
The findings support the argument for legalization measures to be accompanied by public health protections — like treatment programs and public awareness campaigns educating people about the risks of overuse.

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Legal drugs are produced by commercial industries that seek to increase consumption in order to increase profits. Nearly 4 times more Americans use tobacco than marijuana; 7 times more use alcohol. Because legalizing marijuana opens the door to commerce, the number of people who use marijuana is likely to equal the number who use tobacco and/or alcohol.

The Real Dangers of Marijuana

Jonathan P. Caulkins, NATIONAL AFFAIRS, Numbr 33, Fall 2017

[Note: Consider the “problem use” of marijuana. More likely to be poor. More likely to have less education. What is the policy impact on this more vulnerable population?

…consumption is highly concentrated among the smaller number of daily & near-daily users, and they tend to be less educated, less affluent, and less in control of their use.”
…The median marijuana user, in other words, may be someone who indulges periodically but generally doesn’t consume a lot of it. However, most of the marijuana consumed in the U.S. isn’t consumed by the median marijuana user, but rather by the very heavy users who smoke daily or more.]

“There is a sharp contrast between what policy is best for the typical user versus what is best for the people who consume most of the marijuana,” Caulkins said. Legalization may not change much in the life of the typical marijuana user. But heavy users who overindulge may find it even easier to do so when marijuana is legal and cheaper to buy.

Long-term health effects for adults

Respiratory effects:

People who smoke marijuana daily or near-daily may have a daily cough, bronchitis, mucus and wheezing.

Both firsthand and secondhand smoke contain the same cancer-causing chemicals as tobacco smoke.

Lung cancer:

There is conflicting research about smoking marijuana and lung cancer.

The cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco smoke are also in marijuana smoke.

People who smoke marijuana daily or near-daily may have tissue damage in the airways of their lungs. More research is needed to determine if this tissue damage increases the likelihood of developing lung cancer.

Brain and mental health effects:

Heavy use of marijuana can damage your memory. This damage can last a week or more after the last time you used.

Marijuana, especially in high doses, can cause temporary psychosis (not knowing what is real, hallucinations and paranoia) while you are high.

Chronic Marijuana Use Is Up In Colorado

A new report from the Colorado Retail Marijuana Public Health Advisory Committee tells us that among 18-25 years olds, 13 percent report using marijuana daily or near-daily. Mark Kleiman is taken aback that this has gotten hardly any attention:

[Note: this is more than a third of all past 30 day users in this age group in Colorado, which jumped to highest in use rates after commercialization of the drug.]

…We know from other studies by Beau Kilmer and his group at RAND that daily/near-daily smokers consume about three times as much cannabis per use-day as less frequent smokers, enough to be measurably impaired (even if not subjectively stoned) for most of their waking hours….The National Survey on Drug Use and Health finds that about one-half of daily or near-daily smokers meet the diagnostic criteria for Substance Use Disorder. That’s a frightening share of users, and of the total population, to be engaging in such worrisome behavior.

[And this is from Mother Jones, a decidedly lefty publication]:
…The kind of people who read this blog are probably in favor of marijuana legalization—as I am—largely because they’re the kind of people who use it occasionally and don’t see a lot of harm in it. But like alcohol, there’s a certain share of the population that will fall into addiction, and that share is likely to increase as marijuana prices come down . There’s never a free lunch.

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[NOTE: On Marijuana Pricing and Tax Revenue when marijuana becomes more available. Prices collapse. Tax revenue declines. Costs escalate. Some revenue is not work taking.]

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Uh-Oh! Marijuana Prices Are Plunging, and You’re not Going to Be Happy With the Reason Why

[Note: this “ArcView” marijuana speculation and marketing firm is generally the only source that the pot press uses for projecting sales and revenue numbers. A single source of information, from a firm with investing interests. This is another textbook case in norming marijuana and driving a speculative market stampede. And the press that uses their numbers without questioning or disclosing financial motivations ad interests is generally complicit. Not to mention public officials who base policy on this addiction-for-profit market phenomenon.]

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In case you missed this point at the beginning of this post: As the share of the population who uses this drug increases, the number of users who become addicted to the product rises proportionately. Except in the 20th Century, we have much more potent marijuana THC laced products. So the new numbers on addiction rates are yet to be collected or fully analyzed.